''The pride of Ireland is
here this evening," Conan O'Brien said to much applause on
Thursday's episode of ''Late Night," which was devoted entirely
to U2. ''I meant me," he added.
Fortunately, O'Brien did not let his reverence for Bono and
the boys turn his celebration into anything heavy or sappy.
For a brisk hour, he was his usual ironic self, and the band
was its usual rocking self -- while plugging its album and
world tour, of course.
U2 sounded great in the confines of the ''Late Night" studio,
which happens to be the first American TV studio in which
the group appeared when it played Tom Snyder's late-night
show in 1981. The band can certainly rock a stadium, but it
can also bring down a smaller house with a lot less flash
and strain.
U2 opened with ''All Because of You," the Edge conspicuous
in a T-shirt with the words ''New York City" on it, and later
on performed ''Original of the Species" with a small but impassioned
string section. At the end of the night, the band played ''Stuck
in a Moment You Can't Get Out of," broadening from an intimate
acoustic sound to a full band with horns, and ''Vertigo,"
in which Bono fit ''Late Night, Conan O'Brien" into the lyrics.
All the songs were satisfying.
The music was broken up with comedy and talk segments. Early
in the show, O'Brien visited the line of fans waiting for
tickets outside the studio, teasing them for their obsessiveness.
At last he announced, ''The good news is that I think many
of you will get into tonight's performance. The bad news is
you're standing in the line for 'The Tony Danza Show.' " O'Brien
also did a special edition of ''In the Year 2000," with contributions
from both Bono and the Edge. Turns out that in the future,
U2 will admit that it wrote ''I Still Haven't Found What I'm
Looking For" after searching four supermarkets for a box of
Boo Berry cereal.
The first conversational segment featured O'Brien at his desk
teasing all the band members to their faces, revealing doctored
pictures of them looking suspiciously like the band A Flock
of Seagulls. It was a mellow chat, with jokey looks back at
the start of the band and Bono's one-time illusions about
playing lead guitar.
The second conversation, between Bono and O'Brien, was less
jovial and entertaining, as Bono predictably plugged his causes
and philosophized about America: ''America's not just a country,
it's an idea, as far as I'm concerned. And I love the idea."
The best little snippet was his description of Jesse Helms's
description of the audience at a U2 concert: ''They were blowin'
like a field of corn," is how Bono said Helms put it.
Bono also took the opportunity to acknowledge his Nobel Peace
Prize nomination. ''I don't think it's going to happen for
an Irish rock star, but I'm so deeply honored to even be thought
of." Friday morning, of course, he was proved correct.
1. Introduction by Conan O'Brien
2. Outside the studio
3. All Because Of You
4. Look into the future "In the Year 2000"
5. Interview with members of U2
6. Original of the Species
7. Bono and O'Brien interview about Nobel Peace Prize
8. Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
9. Vertigo |
|
